264 research outputs found
Asian citrus psyllid stylet morphology and applicability to the model for inter-instar stylet replacement in the potato psyllid
In Hemiptera, presumptive stylets for each consecutive postembryonic instar are manufactured prior to
ecdysis to replace the ecdysial stylets discarded with the exuviae. With the discovery that the bacterium
âCandidatusâ Liberibacter solanacearum accesses the tissues involved in the stylet replacement process of
the potato psyllid, a hypothesis was formed that the bacterium could adhere to the stylets of freshly
emerged instars and hence gain access to the host plant when feeding is resumed. Although unproven, it
was imperative that a model for stylet replacement be built. Stylet morphology and the stylet replacement
process of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), vector of âC.â L. asiaticus, causal pathogen of citrus
greening disease, are comparable to the potato psyllid model system. Morphology consists of a basal
terminus with its tab-shaped auricle, a base, shaft, and an apical terminus. Each of the four auricles act as
a platform for the replacement apparatus, which is compacted into a tight aggregate of cells, the âendcapâ.
As modeled, on apolysis of larval instar hypodermis, the aggregate âdeconstructsâ and expands into a
snail shell-shaped tube, the âatriumâ, that houses the presumptive stylet as it is synthesized. Completed
stylets then despool from the atrium and are fitted into their functional positions as the next instar
emerges from its exuviae.Funding was provided by a grant from USDA-NIFA Award 2014-
70016-23028, 2015-2020, âDeveloping an Infrastructure and
Product Test Pipeline to Deliver Novel Therapies for Citrus
Greening Diseaseâ
Finite Element Modal Analysis of Transient Water Flow in Aquifers
In this paper a modal superposition method is applied for the numerical modeling of aquifers. The proximity of aquifers to populated regions requires special care in their management to avoid problems that affect the quantity and quality of the water they supply. To contribute to the management of this type of natural resource, we propose a numerical strategy based on modal analysis using the finite element method. This procedure assist water production scenarios, performing the mass balance where water extraction is done through wells, in aquifers that are subject to natural recharge. This mathematical procedure is based on the modal superposition for transient flow in porous media. To evaluate its efficiency, this strategy was compared with the classical finite element method. The advantage of the proposed method resides in the possibility of reusing the properties of the global matrix of the finite element method in transient problems, for different production conditions given by the distributed recharge and by the water extraction rate from the wells, solving the numerical problem with a more efficient use of computational resources. This strategy is useful in studies of uncertainty quantification, history matching and optimization of water production in aquifers, since these types of analysis are resource intensive for the very large number of numerical simulations required for these scenarios
Legitimacy in the Multilevel European Polity
In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance â which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent traditions of ârepublicanâ and âliberalâ political philosophy. When judged by these criteria, the European Union â if considered by itself â appears as a thoroughly liberal polity which, however, lacks all republican credentials. But this view (which seems to structure the debates about the âEuropean democratic deficitâ) ignores the multilevel nature of the European polity, where the compliance of citizens is requested, and needs to be legitimated by member states â whereas the Union appears as a âgovernment of governmentsâ which is entirely dependent on the voluntary compliance of its member states. What matters primarily, therefore, is the compliance-legitimacy relationship between the Union and its member states â which, however, is normatively constrained by the basic compliance-legitimacy relationship between member governments and their constituents. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, member governments could and should be able to assume political responsibility for European policies in which they had a voice, and to justify them in âcommunicative discoursesâ in the national public space. This is not necessarily true of ânon-politicalâ policy choices imposed by the European Court of Justice. By enforcing its âliberalâ program of liberalization and deregulation, the ECJ may presently be undermining the ârepublicanâ bases of member-state legitimacy. Where this is the case, open non-compliance is a present danger, and political controls of judicial legislation may be called for.Um gleichzeitig effektiv und liberal sein zu können, ist staatliche Herrschaft auf freiwillige Folgebereitschaft angewiesen â die ihrerseits der UnterstĂŒtzung durch sozial geteilte LegitimitĂ€tsĂŒberzeugungen bedarf. In den demokratischen Verfassungsstaaten des Westens werden solche Ăberzeugungen aus den unterschiedlichen, aber komplementĂ€r zusammenwirkenden Traditionen der ârepublikanischenâ und der âliberalenâ politischen Philosophie hergeleitet. An diesen Kriterien gemessen erscheint die EuropĂ€ische Union â wenn man sie fĂŒr sich betrachtet â als eine âliberaleâ politische Ordnung, der jedoch alle ârepublikanischenâ LegitimitĂ€tsmerkmale fehlen. Aber eine solche Sichtweise, die auch die derzeitige Diskussion ĂŒber ein âeuropĂ€isches Demokratiedefizitâ bestimmt, verkennt den Mehrebenencharakter des europĂ€ischen Gemeinwesens. In ihm sind es die Mitgliedstaaten, die Entscheidungen der Union gegenĂŒber den eigenen BĂŒrgern durchsetzen und auch legitimieren mĂŒssen, wĂ€hrend es fĂŒr die Union ihrerseits auf die freiwillige Folgebereitschaft ihrer Mitgliedstaaten ankommt. Dabei werden diese jedoch durch die normativen Grundlagen ihrer eigenen LegitimitĂ€t begrenzt. Politische Entscheidungen auf europĂ€ischer Ebene setzen breiten Konsens voraus, und die Regierungen sollten sie deshalb auch gegenĂŒber den eigenen BĂŒrgern in âkommunikativen Diskursenâ vertreten und dafĂŒr die politische Verantwortung ĂŒbernehmen können. Dies gilt jedoch nicht notwendigerweise auch fĂŒr Entscheidungen der europĂ€ischen Politik, die im nichtpolitischen Modus ohne Beteiligung des Rates und des Parlaments vom EuropĂ€ischen Gerichtshof bestimmt werden. Mit der gegenwĂ€rtigen Radikalisierung seines âliberalenâ Programms der Liberalisierung und Deregulierung des nationalen Rechts könnte der Gerichtshof in der Tat die ârepublikanischenâ Grundlagen der mitgliedstaatlichen LegitimitĂ€t unterminieren. In diesem Falle könnte die Union sich nicht lĂ€nger auf die Folgebereitschaft ihrer Mitgliedstaaten verlassen. Um diese Gefahr fĂŒr die europĂ€ische Integration zu vermeiden, sollte eine stĂ€rkere politische Kontrolle der richterlichen Rechtsetzung erwogen werden.1 Legitimacy Republican and liberal legitimating discourses Constitutional democracies â and the EU? 2 Legitimacy in multilevel polities 3 Legitimating member state compliance Political modes of policy making Non-political policy making 4 The need for justification 5 The Court is pushing against the limits of justifiability 6 The liberal undermining of republican legitimacy 7 Needed: A political balance of community and autonomy Reference
Norms of Presentational Force
This is the author's accepted manuscript, made available with permission of the American Forensic Association.Can style or presentational devices reasonably compel us to believe, agree, act? I submit that they can, and that the normative pragmatic project explains how. After describing a normative pragmatic approach to presentational force, I analyze and evaluate presentational force in Susan B. Anthony's "Is it a Crime for a U. S. Citizen to Vote" as it apparently proceeds from logic, emotion, and style. I conclude with reflections on the compatibility of the normative pragmatic approach with the recently-developed pragma-dialectical treatment of presentational devices
Self-love and sociability: the ârudiments of commerceâ in the state of nature
Istvan Hontâs classic work on the theoretical links between the seventeenth-century natural jurists Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf and the eighteenth-century Scottish political economists remains a popular trope among intellectual and economic historians of various stamps. Despite this, a common criticism levelled at Hont remains his relative lack of engagement with the relationship between religion and economics in the early modern period. This paper challenges this aspect of Hontâs narrative by drawing attention to an alternative, albeit complementary, assessment of the natural jurisprudential heritage of eighteenth-century British political economy. Specifically, the article attempts to map on to Hontâs thesis the Christian Stoic interpretation of Grotius and Pufendorf which has gained greater currency in recent years. In doing so, the paper argues that Grotius and Pufendorfâs contributions to the âunsocial sociabilityâ debate do not necessarily lead directly to the Scottish school of political economists, as is commonly assumed. Instead, it contends that a reconsideration of Grotius and Pufendorf as neo-Stoic theorists, particularly via scrutiny of their respective adaptations of the traditional Stoic theory of oikeiosis, steers us towards the heart of the early English âclericalâ Enlightenment
The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase
The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray
spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space
X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and
Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey
Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors
(TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a
spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of
5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement
Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an
overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain),
due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after
illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the
instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and
associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular
emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters.
Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration
activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument
Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the
consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU
aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the
development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU,
it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the
X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution
X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific
objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).Comment: 48 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental
Astronomy with minor editin
The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase
The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory. Athena is a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, as selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), X-IFU aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over a hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR (i.e. in the course of its preliminary definition phase, so-called B1), browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters, such as the instrument efficiency, spectral resolution, energy scale knowledge, count rate capability, non X-ray background and target of opportunity efficiency. Finally, we briefly discuss the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation and the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, with additional contributions from the United States and Japan.The French contribution to X-IFU is funded by CNES, CNRS and CEA. This work has been also supported by ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract 2019-27-HH.0, and by the ESA (European Space Agency) Core Technology Program (CTP) Contract No. 4000114932/15/NL/BW and the AREMBES - ESA CTP No.4000116655/16/NL/BW. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by âERDF A way of making Europeâ. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 and PID2020-115325GB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19: a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050
Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval UI] 8.7-8.8) or 40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that 13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. 1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. 2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only 1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd
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Evolution of the glow-signal system in Microphotus (Coleoptera, Lampyridae)
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